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Amazing, every answer to the Spot the Difference post, on this blog and also on facebook and twitter, was completely correct. There must be some sort of record there. It’s a good job I didn’t offer any sort of prize. There was actually meant to be just the one difference but I’ll leave it to you to guess which the deliberate difference was.

Additionally, somehow I haven’t made that lasagne yet. Shows you what a lazy bastard I am. Tomorrow’s a public holiday and it’s going to be raining so maybe this’ll be the perfect chance. Jamie, Nigella and Delia all have lasagne recipes online so I’m sure to end up with a foul-tasting amalgam of the three. Do eggplants go with bechamel sauce? I shall report back on the success or otherwise soon enough.

In the meantime, the year’s first cycling events are just around the corner. It’s Golden Week next week with a string of public holidays in a row and on Tuesday, I’ll be riding a 200km brevet. I’m led to believe that audax or brevet rides are not particularly competitive – you just head off and do the ride. I’ll find out about that in more detail on Tuesday, I imagine. I think my longest ride (on a single day) is about 180km, so this will be the longest ride I’ve done. Excellent preparation for the first race of the season, which is the next Sunday and is a very short criterium – only about 12km I think. I’m not brimming with confidence after I went for a training ride with a group of mainly elite level riders last Sunday and got dropped as soon as the pace went on in the hills. In my defence, I was recovering from a two-night comparative hangover study, in which I discovered that Sapporo Black Label gives you a slightly worse hangover than the Brasserie Dupont’s Avec les bons Voeux. It is half the price, though.

I’m also a little saddened because the following dream job was advertised:

Our client is seeking a foreign singer who can sing at wedding ceremonies.
The person who meets the following criteria is required.
The person
-who likes singing(and hopefully sings well)
-who can make a contract for a long term
-who can attend when needed (wedding ceremonies are usually held on Saturday or Sunday, but not every weekends)
You don’t need to be a professional singer.

But sadly I took too long deciding whether to reply and now it’s too late. Anyone who has ever heard me sing will be greatly relieved for all the newly-weds who will never hear my dulcet tones. I was once told off a high school for singing the national anthem and threatened with a visit to the principal.

You don’t want to start in the second row in a 12m criterium. Thanks for spotting that. 12km is still too bloody short. You’d think with such a long winter, they’d cram races in every week to make the most of the warmer weather but no – there’s hardly any. And they’ve decided I have to start down the grades and work my way up so because I’m in the lower grades, a) I’m paying the same money for a shorter race and b) my only way to move up a grade is by winning so now I’ve got the pressure on me as well.

My drinking-cycling composite would be low because I managed a mild hangover from just two king browns of Sapporo and one big bottle of the Avec les bons Voeux. The Belgian beer was 9.5% though. So because there was plenty of dirt and water on the road last Sunday, I had an evening of Belgian beer followed by a morning of Belgian toothpaste.